Strangers on a Train
by assassinactual
Summary: Rachel is kind of obsessed with Quinn. Which is fine, because Quinn is her girlfriend. But she likes to share her obsession with everyone. Including the people fortunate enough to sit beside her on the train. Inspired by a drawing by bunnyearsberry.


It was so early the Rachel wasn't sure if the train she was waiting for was meant to be the first of Monday morning or the last of Sunday night. She glanced down the almost empty platform, wondering what the point of having such an early train was if it didn't even show up on time.

She also wondered why the concept of a heated waiting area hadn't made it to New Haven yet. And why New Haven was so much colder than New York. She had never felt like this in her city. She was afraid her soul would get frostbite. But then, she didn't often find herself standing outside at ten minutes to four in the morning.

She flipped the hood of her Yale sweater over her head and pulled the slightly too long sleeves down to cover her hands. Okay, it wasn't exactly her sweater. She had traded her NYADA sweater for Quinn's Yale one. Without telling Quinn. It wasn't her fault the sweater she had purchased was a size or two too large. Not that Quinn's fit any better. But it did smell like her.

Rachel hugged herself and rubbed her arms for warmth. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine that she was back in Quinn's warm bed, and her new girlfriend was wrapped around her.

That thought made Rachel smile. When she had stepped off the train on Friday night she was greeted by her best friend that she had developed a not-so-small crush on. They had hugged, as usual, but Rachel had been unable to stop herself from placing a short, chaste kiss on Quinn's lips.

The bus ride back to Quinn's apartment had been mostly silent. Rachel thought she had screwed everything up until Quinn had reached over and squeezed her hand.

They had spent the rest of the weekend just talking, or watching old musicals. And there might have been a few hours spent in Quinn's bed, doing things Rachel had dreamed of doing for three years.

Rachel kept herself warm with thoughts of Quinn until the train came.

~S~

Rachel checked the time on her phone once she was in her seat. She had class in four hours.

She knew she should be tired after getting almost no sleep all weekend, but she was still buzzing with excitement. She had a girlfriend. Rachel Berry had a girlfriend. Quinn Fabray was Rachel Berry's girlfriend.

She couldn't wait to tell everyone. She had already almost called Kurt, and her fathers, before she had remembered that most normal people would be sleeping at that time of day.

When a sleepy looking young man in a suit entered the train car, Rachel smiled at him. He returned the smile and took the seat across from her.

He might have been thinking that he had a chance with this pretty girl on the train, or maybe he was just looking for someone to have a conversation with. If he had known what would happen, he would've run away as fast as possible.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," Rachel replied with a huge smile.

The man took the smile as a good sign and spoke again.

"Where are you headed?"

"New York." Rachel was quickly becoming bored. She wanted to talk about Quinn.

"So, do you go to Yale?" He gestured towards the sweater as he spoke.

Rachel wasn't about to pass up an opportunity like that. She took a deep breath before speaking.

"No, this is my girlfriend's. She goes to Yale. Her name is Quinn. She's really pretty, but she's also at the top of all her classes. She's going to be an actress when she graduates. You should remember this, so that when she's famous, you can tell all your friends that you met Quinn Fabray's girlfriend on a train once."

Rachel paused to take a breath. The man tried to speak, but was too slow.

"Although, we'll probably be married by then. I have a plan, you see. And I will of course be a star in my own right, but I expect as a young Broadway actress it will take a bit more time for me to become as recognized by the general public as she is. But I think winning my first Emmy or Grammy early on will really help to launch my career beyond the realm of theatre. Would you like an autograph? It may be valuable in the future."

She looked at him expectantly. He just sat there with his mouth half open and blinked several times.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I haven't introduced myself. I'm Rachel Berry, future star." Rachel was very outgoing, but often found meeting new people difficult. She thought introductions and small talk to be tedious. Especially when there were more important things to discuss. Like Quinn. And the fact that she was Rachel's girlfriend.

Rachel extend her hand and the man shook it carefully, as if she were a bomb that could go off at any moment.

"I – erhm, I'm Rob," he said.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Rob. I must say, having someone to speak to is quite refreshing. These train rides are usually so dull."

He laughed nervously.

"Yeah. Dull."

"I didn't even know they had trains this early until last week. Do you take this one often?" Rachel said.

"Every day. I work in the city."

Rachel nodded, pretending she was interested. She was getting bored again. They were both silent for a minute or so. Rob took out his iPod, but Rachel was talking again before he could get the headphones on.

"Would you like to see a picture of Quinn? I have several." Rachel dug a photo wallet out of her bag and began to flip through it. She sighed when she reached the first picture of Quinn. "She is so beautiful. This one is from when we won the National Show Choir Championship. And this is us at Christmas last year. And this is our junior prom. We didn't go together, though. She went with – well, it was a complicated situation.

"I was a very important moment in our relationship. She lost prom queen – only because the vote was rigged, of course – and she blamed me for it. She even slapped me! A proper slap, too. Left a handprint and everything. It was very dramatic. She apologized right away, though. I don't think I've seen someone look so remorseful.

"I understand why she did it. Even I have had moments of low self-esteem. So I told her that she was the prettiest girl I had ever met, which is true, and that she is so much more than that, which is also true. She didn't believe me right away, unfortunately, but it help to build the foundation of our friendship."

Rachel continued on like that for the rest of the two hour journey to New York. She didn't notice that Rob had fallen asleep somewhere around Bridgeport.

~S~

Rachel had started feeling the effects of staying awake almost all weekend after getting off the train in New York. But after two large cups of coffee on her way home, she was once again wide awake.

She dropped her bag in the hallway, then crept quietly into Kurt's bedroom. He was sleeping face down, with a pillow pulled over his head. Rachel poked him in the shoulder.

"Kurt. Kurt. Wake up! Kurt!"

Kurt groaned and swatted at her blindly. She continued poking him, so he rolled over and sat up.

"What have I told you about waking me up before seven?"

"Not to." Kurt looked at her pointedly. "But this is really important! Quinn –"

Kurt flopped back on the bed.

"If you're just going to ramble about how she's so pretty and graceful and elegant, I'm going back to sleep." Rachel stood beside Kurt's bed with her hands clasped under her chin. She was smiling as wide as she could without showing her teeth and practically vibrating with excitement. "What?"

"I did it, Kurt! I did it! Quinn – "

Kurt held up a hand to stop her.

"Oh my god, Rachel. No. I do not need to hear about your lesbian sexcapades."

"No, I wasn't – well, I mean, we did – but, that's not what I meant. I kissed her! Kurt, I kissed Quinn! I got off the train and I just kissed her. Then when we got back to her place, I told her that I like her and she said she feels the same way, so now she's my girlfriend. Quinn! My girlfriend!"

"Well, if that's all, I need my sleep." Rachel pouted. "Feel free to continue if you want." With that, he rolled back over and covered his head with a pillow.

Rachel spent the next twenty minutes recounting her weekend to Kurt before she retired to her room.

She sat down on her bed and opened her laptop. The first thing she did was check Facebook. She accepted Quinn's relationship offer. She resisted the urge to set her status to something like 'Quinn Quinn Quinn!' and went instead with a simple ':)'.

After catching up on a few blogs she checked the time and decided she had time for a short nap. She put away the computer, then kicked off her shoes and crawled under the blankets.

She didn't make it to any of her classes that day.

~S~

Rachel was once again on the train. She was headed up to New Haven to celebrate her and Quinn's three month anniversary, which just happened to also be Valentine's Day.

She was leaning her head against the cool glass of the window, waiting for the train to leave the station. She pulled out her phone and opened the photos app. She flicked through the pictures until she found the one she was looking for.

Kurt had taken it a few weeks earlier, when Quinn had come to New York for the weekend. They were in a snowy Times Square. Billboards advertising West Side Story and Chicago were visible behind them. Rachel was resting her chin on Quinn's shoulder while Quinn was showing her pictures on her big black camera.

"Excuse me miss, do you mind if I sit here?"

She looked up from her phone to see a kind looking woman with greying hair standing in the aisle and pointing at the open seat next to Rachel.

"Not at all," Rachel said with a smile. She looked back to the photo on her phone while the woman seated herself.

"Do you go to Yale? My daughter studies law there."

Rachel looked up and was confused for a moment. Then she realized that she was wearing the sweater that she had stolen, no _traded_ from Quinn. It was so soft and warm. And she made sure to let Quinn wear it often enough that it still smelled like her.

"No, this is my girlfriend's. She goes to Yale. I'm visiting her right now." She glanced back at the picture of Quinn on her phone. So pretty. "Would you like to see a picture of her?" Rachel held the phone over so the woman could see it.

"Oh, wow. That's quite a good looking girl you've got."

"Yes, she is. But she's a lot more than that. She gets straight A's in all her classes, and she is an extremely talented actress and dancer. She also sings. And she was captain of a nationally ranked cheerleading squad in high school. My girlfriend is really quite amazing."

The woman chuckled a bit and smiled at her.

"I bet she is."

"Her name's Quinn, by the way, and I'm Rachel."

"Ruth." The woman held her hand out and Rachel shook it. Then Ruth reached down to pull something out of her bag. "Would you like to see some pictures of my daughter?"

~S~

"Rachel, sit _down_," Quinn said through gritted teeth. "We're on a moving train. Do you want to fall and crack your head open?"

Rachel pouted and tried to squirm out of her girlfriend's grip.

"But Quinn, think of these people! They might never know that they shared a train with Rachel Berry and her fantastically awesome and altogether quite excellent girlfriend Quinn Fabray."

Just then, the train rounded a rather sharp turn, sending Rachel sprawling across Quinn's lap.

"See? That's why you should stay in your seat."

Rachel settled herself back in her seat and tried to ignore the nauseous feeling. She was beginning to regret her fourth beer. And the tequila. And the shots.

"Oh god, the shots," she moaned as she clutched her stomach. "Quinn, why did you let me drink so much? You knew that my dads are coming to visit today."

"It's not my fault that you got into a drinking contest. Or that you're so tiny you're still drunk the next morning." Rachel moaned again. Quinn put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her girlfriend closer. "Just go to sleep, Rach. We'll get you a coffee once we get there, that should help you sober up a bit." She muttered 'I hope' under her breath so Rachel couldn't hear it.

"Okay," Rachel replied, and almost immediately went to sleep on Quinn's shoulder. Quinn laid her head against of Rachel's and fell asleep shortly after.

Quinn was woken by a pair of warm hands gently pushing her into a more upright position. When she got her bearings, she found Rachel kneeling on her seat, attempting to stand up again. Her first reaction was to grab her girlfriend around the waist.

"Rachel, stop it!"

Rachel waved for her to be quiet. She gave up attempting to stand after she was unable to loosen Quinn's grip.

"Everyone, I have an announcement I would like to make," Rachel said loudly. She paused to allow the people time to shift their attention.

"Rachel, stop."

"I, Rachel Berry, am in – wait, what's the word? Quinn, what are we?"

Rachel turned to her with a puzzled look on her face.

"Rachel, sit down," Quinn hissed.

"You're no help. Ah, lesbians! That's it." She turned back to the rest of the passengers to continue her announcement. "Everyone, I am in lesbians with Quinn Fabray! No wait, that doesn't sound right."

"Rachel, do want to get us banned from the train _again_?" Rachel pouted and crossed her arms, but sat down. "Why don't you just go back to sleep? We're only half way there."

Rachel very pointedly looked away from Quinn.

"You aren't very nice, so I'm not going to talk to you anymore."

Quinn pressed her forehead against the window.

"Whatever. Just don't get us in trouble."

Rachel was quiet for several minutes. Quinn was almost asleep when Rachel started poking her. "What?"

"Love. That's the word I meant. I'm in looooove with you. I should tell – "

Quinn grabbed her arm before she could try to stand up again.

"No."

"You're no fun."

~S~

"It's a wonderful opportunity for her, and I want her to go for it, of course. She understands that I support her. At least, I think she does. I don't get why she doesn't want me to come with her. Does she have so little faith in our relationship that she thinks we couldn't last four months living together?"

Rachel just didn't understand why Quinn was so opposed to her joining her for the summer in Los Angeles. It wasn't like she would be giving up anything. There would be just as many chances for her to show off her talent in LA as there would be in New York.

Rachel looked at the man across from her, who had been nodding along with what she had been saying. It took him a second or two to realize she expected him to talk.

"Uh, well, you said you wanted to, like, be on Broadway, right?" Rachel nodded. "So maybe your girl thinks it would be better for you to get some experience here than in LA, y'know?"

Rachel hadn't thought of that. She tried to find a flaw in the man's reasoning. When she couldn't, she pulled out her phone.

"I'm going to call her right now." The man sighed in relief and went back to his book.

~S~

Rachel was nervously turning the ring box over in her hands, flipping it open and shut every so often. It had taken months surreptitiously measuring Quinn's rings and browsing every jewelry store in Manhattan to pick out the ring. It was a thin silver-coloured band with a modestly sized diamond in set on it.

All that time spent selecting the ring, and Rachel still wasn't sure what exactly she was going to say to Quinn. The notebook in her bag contained a rough outline of her plan for the night, as well as one-hundred and forty-six variations of her possible proposal to Quinn. All of which she had rejected.

She looked up from the ring box to watch the scenery out the window for a moment. Her eyes drifted over the woman in front of her. A gold band on the woman's left hand caught her attention.

"Excuse me," she started. The woman looked up. "I was wondering if you were married." Rachel indicated the woman's ring.

The woman studied her for a second before replying.

"I am."

"I'm terribly sorry to bother you, it's just I'm planning to propose to my girlfriend tonight, and I'm getting nervous and starting to second guess this whole thing."

The woman smiled at her.

"That's normal, sweetie. You just gotta stick with what your gut tells you."

"My instincts do tell me that this is right for us. I've just had a bad experience with an engagement in the past. Back then I agreed to it for all the wrong reasons. My relationship with Quinn is nothing like that. I love her. I know she loves me. There's just this small part of me that's always doubting if I'm doing the right thing. What if I'm doing to her what he did to me?"

The woman considered for a moment.

"Imagine that the only thing going on in your life right now is what's happening between the two of you. You don't have to worry about work or school or any sort of outside influences. It's just the two of you. Would you still be proposing to her?"

"Well, yes, but I don't see how that helps. We don't live in a bubble. We do have school and careers to worry about," Rachel said.

"What about – do you ever think of your future? Like just imagine what you want to be doing in say, five years?"

Images of herself on a Broadway stage and accepting all kinds of awards filled Rachel's mind.

"Yes."

"Now, without changing anything about what you see for yourself can you picture her with you?"

A different set of images filled Rachel's mind. Making dinner with Quinn on her night off. Snuggling up in Quinn's favorite sweater and Skyping with her while she was in Los Angeles shooting a movie. Getting home from work just in time to see Quinn rocking a tiny baby to sleep.

While these thoughts were running through her mind, Rachel flipped the ring box open again. Her gaze stayed fixed on the ring while spoke, and her lips curved into the little smile the she always got when she was talking about Quinn.

"Yes. No matter what I see myself doing, she's there. It's just – being apart from her just isn't an option anymore. Obviously, there will be times when we have to travel for work, but at the end of the day, I want it to her that I come home to. I want to spend the rest of my life with her."

"I think you've got your answer." The woman's voice drew Rachel out of her thoughts. "You should tell her something like that."

Rachel mulled that over for a second.

"Yes, I think I will."

The woman pointed toward the carefully wrapped bouquet of flowers on the seat beside Rachel.

"Wouldn't red be more traditional?" To Rachel's confused look, she added, "Your roses."

"Oh, those aren't roses, that would be far too ordinary for us. They're gardenias. You see, I gave her a gardenia wrist corsage for our junior prom. At the time, the sentiment I intended to convey was 'you're lovely', but I later found out they also mean 'secret love'. It was quite fitting, even if it was unintentional."

~S~

Rachel boarded the train for her last weekend trip to New Haven. She was going to help Quinn finish packing up her things, then load up the U-haul Quinn had rented and drive it down to New York.

When she had informed Santana of the plan, she had endured twenty minutes of her jokes before pointing out that she had lived with Brittany since shortly after graduating from high school.

Rachel took a seat across from a woman who was maybe a year or two younger than her. She shot her a smile, which the woman returned shyly, then she looked down at her phone to send a quick text message to Quinn.

When she looked back up, the woman seemed to be staring at Rachel's chest. She noticed Rachel had caught her and blushed.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to stare, but, uh, I go to Yale too."

"Hmm?" Rachel looked down at her chest to get some clue what the woman meant. She saw the word 'YALE' written across the front of her t-shirt. It was another one she had _borrowed_ from Quinn. "No, I don't go to Yale. My girlf – _fiancée _does. Well, did. She just graduated, top of her class." Rachel noticed the woman's eyes drifting to her ringless left hand. "I proposed to her."

"Oh." The woman nodded in understanding, then frowned slightly. "Do I recognize you from somewhere?" Rachel was about to begin listing off all the public performances that she could have seen at, but the girl beat her to it. "You're Rachel Berry! I've seen you sing at Sullivan's."

Rachel tried to stop herself from doing a little dance in her seat. She mostly succeeded. "That blonde girl you always sing with, is that your fiancée?"

"Yes, her name is Quinn."

The woman nodded.

"Yes, I remember. You two perform very well together."

"Well, we have known each other a long time. I first met her on our first day of high school. She was the prettiest girl I'd ever seen. I was about to introduce myself to her when she threw a slushy in my face. I later learned that one was an accident, but it got our relationship off to a rough start.

"It wasn't exactly a love at first sight type situation. At least, we didn't recognize it was love, at first. It took us a long time to get here, but we were always in each other's life in some way or another."

~S~

Rachel and Quinn stood beside each other in the train station. A short girl with hazel eyes and long dark brown hair was in front of them.

"Remember to call us if you need anything, okay?" Quinn said. The girl nodded. Quinn grabbed her and wrapped her in a tight hug. Rachel looked on with a proud smile while she wiped a few tears away. "We'll come up next weekend with the rest of your stuff."

The girl pulled out of the hug after a minute. She smoothed down her shirt and glanced furtively around the station.

"We're going to miss you, Grace," Rachel said.

Grace sighed and rolled her eyes.

"I'll be fine, moms. It's only two hours away. I spent all summer in LA, remember?"

Quinn grinned and ruffled the girl's hair. Grace swatted her hands away.

"We know, Gracie," Quinn said.

Rachel stepped between them and pulled her wife and their daughter into a three way hug. Grace didn't pull away this time.

Quinn glanced over Rachel's shoulder at the clock. "Rach, it's almost time for her to go." They broke apart. Rachel was dabbing at her eyes again and Grace was blinking rapidly. Quinn picked up the heavy backpack from the floor and helped her daughter put it on.

"Call us as soon as you get there," Rachel said. "And try to stay out of trouble."

Quinn adjusted the straps of the backpack, then patted Grace on the shoulder.

"Yeah, don't do anything I wouldn't." Rachel turned to her and arched an eyebrow. "Okay, don't do anything _she_ wouldn't do," Quinn corrected with a jerk of her thumb towards Rachel.

"I won't." Grace took a few steps backwards, then waved at her moms before spinning around. She made it about five steps before running back to her moms and hugging them both once more.

When she released Quinn, the taller woman kissed her on her forehead.

"Now go," Quinn said, laughing. "Or we'll have to drive you. You don't want that, do you?" Quinn grinned wickedly. Grace stuck her tongue out at her.

"Bye!" she called before either of her mothers could scold her. Then she turned around and ran towards the platform. Just before rounding the corner, she stopped to wave at Rachel and Quinn, who waved back.

They stood there for a long time after she vanished around the corner. Finally, Rachel sighed and leaned her head against her wife's shoulder.

"My baby's all grown up and she's going to Yale. Just like her mom," Rachel said.

"She's going to be a famous musical theatre actress," Quinn said with a gentle poke to Rachel's nose, "just like her mom."

"We should get home, Quinn."

Quinn linked their arms together and steered them towards the exit.

"You know, Rach, the house is empty now."


End file.
